Reviews

Foster , John , L. (Editor ). (1977). Reluctant to Read? Edinburgh Reading Tests - Stages 1 and 4 - Godfrey Thomson Unit. Dubin , F. and Olshtain , E. (1977). Facilitating Language Learning. Skitt , Frank . (1978). Themes for Language Learning.     

Categorical color coding by pigeons

Pigeons were trained on two independent tasks. One involved red and yellow hues, the other involved blue and green hues. For half of the birds, the two tasks were the same (i.e., both tasks were either matching-to-sample, or oddity-from-sample). For the remaining birds, the two tasks were different (i.e., one task was matching-to-sample; the other task was oddity-from-sample). Following acquisition, the pigeons were exposed to test trials on which either the correct or the incorrect comparison hue was replaced with one of the hues from the other task. On yellow-sample trials and on green-sample trials, the pigeons performed as if they had a common code for yellow and green. When there was one comparison available that was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance remained high; but when either both comparisons or neither comparison was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance dropped. The pigeons also tended to code red samples as green and to code blue samples as yellow. The results indicate that pigeons can categorically code colors under conditions that rule out a failure to discriminate among the colors.     

Is students’ energy literacy related to their university’s position in a sustainability ranking?

Abstract

University rankings are increasingly important internationally, and in the UK include a sustainability ‘Green League’. However, there is little evidence about experiences of studying in ‘sustainable universities’. We report an empirical study at five universities in varied positions in the Green League, exploring students’ energy literacy, environmental attitudes and perceptions of their institution’s energy-saving efforts. Although the link to energy literacy is not clear, findings suggest that there are significant differences between students’ environmental attitudes at universities placed at different points in the league. In addition, students at higher ranked universities are more positive about their university’s energy-saving efforts, suggesting that these institutions may exhibit more overt manifestations of sustainability. This is important since students report being more likely to choose energy-conservation behaviours if there is visible representation of energy use. The study is the first to attempt a comparison between universities at different positions in a sustainability ranking.     

Topicalization and the Processing of Expository Prose by Children: mediating effects of cognitive styles and content familiarity

This study assessed the effects of text topicalization conditions (initial position, final position, or no topic sentence) on the comprehension of main ideas and specific passage information for middle school readers. Also of interest were interactions of topic familiarity and readers’ cognitive styles (degree of field independence) with text topicalization. One hundred and seven subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three topicalization conditions and read three familiar and three less‐familiar multipleparagraph expository texts. Main idea comprehension was assessed with both a sentencesummary (generation) and best‐title (recognition) task. Comprehension of specific passage information was evaluated with multiple‐choice items. Text topicalization effects were observed for main idea comprehension (with initial position best, followed by final position), while topic familiarity resulted in higher comprehension scores for specific passage information. Moreover, a cognitive style‐text topicalization interaction was found on the best‐title task; in this case, relatively field dependent readers were assisted by a final topic sentence placement. Implications are drawn for future research concerning the complex interplay of texts, tasks and readers in prose‐processing.     

Raising the bar on studying cultural evolution

Sasaki and Biro (2017, Nature Communications, 8, 15049) show that pairs of pigeons can increase the efficiency of their homing routes over several ‘generations’ in which pair members are gradually replaced by naïve birds. Their findings show that socially transmitted cumulative alterations of behavior are not unique to humans and suggest a way to examine potential mechanisms of cultural evolution.     

Intuitive statistical inference: How pigeons categorize binomial samples

Pigeons categorized binomial samples produced by two complementary random processes. Samples were 1, 2, 4, or 8 successively presented outcomes (vertical or horizontal lines) of, in effect, tossing one of two equally likely coins. One coin (A) was biased in favor of vertical, and the other coin (B) was similarly biased in favor of horizontal. Choosing red or green stimuli presented after each sample was reinforced with food if coin A or coin B had been tossed, respectively. In that sense, choosing red or green was logically analogous to inferring that the statistical evidence reflected tossing of coin A or coin B, respectively. The statistical diagnosticity of a sample, the relative likelihood of its having been produced by a particular coin, equaled, except for sampling fluctuation, the relative frequency of reinforcement of a particular color given that sample, and was experimentally varied by the bias on the coins and by sample size. All the variables that affect optimal, formal inference about binomial samples also affected intuitive inference. But inferences were very suboptimal: “undermatching” was obtained in part due to control of categorization by the sequential structure of binomial samples. These results reveal limitations of optimality theories for animal decision making in the face of uncertainty when observations in samples are presented successively. On the other hand, they are generally compatible with molecular analyses of instrumental learning which assign an important role to the local temporal organization of events preceding reinforcement. Most generally, they show that maladaptive control over intuitive statistical inference by a variable upon which optimal performance does not depend is neither a uniquely human phenomenon nor dependent upon linguistic strategies.